Combustion turbine engines, such as gas turbine engines, typically include a turbine section having alternating arrangements of components, such as rotatable blades and stationary vanes A flow of hot gases from a combustor section expands against respective airfoils of the blades and vanes to rotationally drive the blades in the turbine section, where mechanical energy is extracted to turn a shaft, which may power a compressor section of the turbine engine.
During engine operation, the hot gases produce an environment that corrosively attacks the surfaces of the blades and vanes and often results in oxidation and corrosive pitting. The hot gases, soot from combustion, particles within the flow of hot gases, and other foreign objects also wear against the turbine blades and vanes and erode the surfaces of the blades, vanes, and other turbine engine components, which may undesirably reduce the useful life of the blades or vanes Additionally, the tip region (e g., a squealer tip) of the turbine blades is often subjected to a substantial amount of wear. For example, the blade tip may be abraded when it rubs up against a shroud of a casing in which the turbine blade rotates. High temperatures and stresses further degrade such components by thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and result in cracking of components that are subjected to such loadings.
It is known to use laser-based processes for forming or repairing such components of turbine engines. United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2013/0136868 A1, authored by the present inventors, discloses improved methods for depositing superalloy materials that are otherwise difficult to weld. Those methods include the laser melting of powdered superalloy material together with powdered flux material to form a melt pool under a layer of protective slag. The slag performs a cleaning function in addition to protecting the molten alloy material from the atmosphere. Upon solidification, the slag is removed from the newly deposited superalloy material to reveal a crack-free surface and deposit. Such methods have been shown to be effective even for superalloy materials which are beyond the traditional region of weldability.